For more than a half year now, whenever there’s a gap between two programmes ICS (International Channel Shanghai) plays a music video of Bon Jovi, then followed by an attractive lady in a car whose name I don’t know and to finish it off there’s Justin Bieber. Bon Jovi I still remember from their first iteration when they were still wild and Livin’ on a Prayer. Now they are so accepted that Chinese tv couples them with Justin Bieber. What’s next, the Sex Pistols.

As an aside, the days that the commercials were in English, mostly proclaiming a city the Most “Beautiful, Exciting, etc” in China, seem to be over. One more sign that ICS is probably the most expensive English corner in China.

Stop Quoting the BMW Woman

99% of the articles about the divide between rich and poor in China and materialism in Chinese Society mention the woman that would rather cry in the back of a BMW than laugh on the back of a bicycle. The latest in an article by Jonathan Fenby (who writes great books by the way).

Tuangou, or Group buying, is hot at the moment. The whole internet seems to be destined to become one Tuangou.

In the end though, whatever you buy now, you only need to join one Tuangou and you’ll sail away in 2012 on Noah’s Ark leaving behind all those Tuangou’ers that were happy with getting a 10 Rmb discount on their next meal.

Google has announced it’s contemplating leaving China and the ramifications might well be that in doing so their Gmail service will become unavailable as well. There’s no certainty but don’t be naive and think it could not happen. Stranger things happened in China regarding the Internet.How to backup Gmail with Gmail Backup

I just asked her if she felt less happy after US bank Lehman Brother’s went bankrupt in september 2008.

Yes, of course, was her answer. Since that moment my happiness index plummeted to very low levels. Before all was ok, also thanks to Lehman Brothers but now….

“What’s the exact score now”, I asked. Well, at most 45. And before? “Well, at minimum 78″.

I followed up with, “Would you still marry me now, you know, considering the financial crisis and so..?”

“No, of course not. Don’t you know, foreigners don’t care about saving. They just spend it, they’re not responsible, they don’t want long term wealth”

“So what now”, I asked. “Well, better to divorce”, she said. “A score of 45 is less than 50 so no good.”

Yes, it’s hard but luckily fiction based on a brilliant article in the local waste paper aka Shanghai Daily that quotes research from the website Hongniang.com.

And so life in China continues to be lived in stereo types. Better think twice before marrying that foreigner!! (unspecified if he’s Asian, European, North/South American, African or god forbid Oceanic)